Tom Dwan Biography

Tom Dwan's poker career started when he was just 17 years
old, while playing under the screen-name "Durrrr." He has since
gone on to win millions of dollars from competing in various
online tournaments, particularly ones that focus on Pot Limit
Omaha and No Limit Hold'em.

In addition to playing online, Dwan has also cashed-in at
several different World Series of Poker events, although he
hasn't won a WSOP bracelet yet. This young, energetic player is
a fearless risk taker who has well-developed strategies and
natural talent. We expect to see even more great things from him
in the future.

Early Life

Thomas Dwan Jr. was born July 30th, 1986 in Edison, New
Jersey. Dwan began playing online at Paradise Poker using the
$50 that his father had given him for his 17th birthday. Dwan
started competing in $6 sit-and-go tournaments, and after four
months he had accumulated over $15,000.

He was attending Boston University, but he dropped out after
one year to focus on playing poker professionally. Dwan was
passionate about competing in live tournaments after playing
against his friends at college, but until he turned twenty-one
he was limited to tournaments outside of the United States.

Professional Poker Career

At 19, Dwan finished 12th in the €3,000 No Limit Texas Hold
'em Main Event of the European Poker Tour and won $12,000 in
prize money. His next significant cash-in was at the 2007 World
Poker No Limit Hold'em Championship Event, where he finished 4th
and won over $320,000.

In 2008, Dwan made two World Series of Poker final tables,
cashing out at over $110,000 and that same year he won an
additional $226,000 at the Borgata Winter Open.

While travelling the world to compete in various tournaments,
Dwan still excelled at online poker. Soon after opening an
account at Full Tilt Poker, Dwan joined six different $100/$200
no-limit tables at the same time, and proceeded to win $200,000
in less than an hour. He eventually started playing against the
most established online poker players in the world including
Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Viktor Blom.

Confident in his skills, Dwan issued a $1,000,000 online
challenge open to anyone to play against him for 50,000 hands of
No-Limit hold 'em or Pot-Limit Omaha. If his opponent was ahead
after the hands had been completed, Dwan agreed to give them
$1,500,000, but if Dwan was ahead, he would get $500,000.

No one has actually accepted this particular challenge, but
many skilled players wanted to try to beat him because of it.
Viktor "Isildur1" Blom challenged Dwan to a week- long online
competition of No-Limit Hold'em cash games which resulted in a
devastating blow to Blom's career, as he lost almost $5 million.

Luckily the next year, Dwan was able to redeem himself when
he finished 2nd at the 2010 WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em event,
winning over $380,000. Dwan also cashed in three different times
at the 2011 WSOP, with the most impressive being 5th place
finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

His lifetime tournament winnings surpass $2 million with a
good portion of that coming from the WSOP final tables. However,
Dwan has yet to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. Below is a
diagram showing Dwan's five best achievements at the WSOP
events.

Tom Dwan's Top 5 World Series of Poker Results

Year

Event

Place

Prize

2010

$1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

2nd

$381,885

2011

$10,000 H.O.R.S.E.

5th

$134,480

2008

$10,000 World Championship Mixed Event

7th

$67,680

2008

$5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys

8th

$45,110

2011

$25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship

9th

$67,436

In addition to his WSOP accomplishments, Dwan holds the
record for the largest pot won in a televised live game at over
$1.1 million, which occurred during the fourth season of Full
Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game.

More recently in May, 2012 Dwan won the biggest pot in poker
history collecting almost $4 million in a cash game he played in
Macau, China. He also earns extra money by appearing on popular
TV poker shows such as GSN's High Stakes Poker and NBC's Late
Night Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Scam

Dwan was sponsored by Full Tilt Poker for the launch of
Durrrr's Million Dollar Challenge which was televised on Sky
Sports. However, after the United States passed the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, Full Tilt had to close their
doors to US customers.

Soon people realized that Full Tilt Poker didn't have the
necessary funds needed to cover the surplus of withdraws and
many customers were cheated out of millions of dollars. Dwan
refused to continue his partnership with Full Tilt, as he was
disgusted with their actions.

When asked what his take was on the Full Tilt fiasco with
Bluff Magazine, he replied by saying, "From an ethical
standpoint, the only two things they had to do were to make sure
they had all the money and make sure there was no cheating. And
that shouldn't be that hard. It was pretty ridiculous."

Today, Dwan prefers to compete mostly in live tournaments,
and he continues to separate himself from having any association
with Full Tilt Poker.